National Maritime Center - Current wait time....

**jdcavo** · June 20th, 2009, 01:01 PM

Originally Posted by Jeffrox

The above premise covers the testing aspect of the crossover exam but was there no discussion of the one year of seatime as 3rd mate? What about that?

I don't follow. You don't need sea time as 3rd Mate for Master 1600. It's time as Mate. It is possible to have sufficient sea time for both 3rd Mate and Master 1600 at the same time. It's not common that someone sits for both together, but it is possible. My explanation was simply that IF you are approved to test fro 3rd Mate and Master 1600 at the same time, there is no point in making yo take a Deck General exam fior 3rd Mate, followed by another Deck General exam for Master 1600 with the exact same stuff on it. Added up, the OICNW exam and the crossover have, in the aggregate, everything that's on the full set of Master 1600 modules. The CFR only says we have to give Master 1600 applicants some sirt of test that covers a specific list of subjects, which in this case, we are doing.

But if y'all want, we can go back to making you take all the modules...

**Capt_Anonymous** · June 20th, 2009, 02:17 PM

Originally Posted by jdcavo

But if y'all want, we can go back to making you take all the modules...

I think what us'all would really love to see is reciprocity. If a wet-behind-the-ears academy 3/M can get a 1600 Master Oceans when upgrading to 2/M, why can't a hawsepiped 1600 Oceans Master, who has worked for years at sea to earn that license, get a 2/M Oceans just by asking for it? Even with a tonnage limitation? I know some unlimited tonnage masters and C/Ms who would kill to have that level of experience on their bridge teams. The present one way street makes no sense, and frankly it is more than a little insulting, especially to guys like me, sitting on issue number seven, to know that to get even a 3/M license we'll have to go through a hell of a lot of trouble to earn the privilege of standing the coveted 0000-0400 watch.

**mike173** · June 21st, 2009, 12:33 AM

Capt_A, as an unlimited 2/M hawsepiper via the 1600 ton route, I, too, have asked that question many times. Since a recent academy grad can use AB time to upgrade to 2/M, it's possible for him to receive a 1600 Master with only 180 days as a 3/M. Makes no freaking sense what-so-ever. So personally, any time someone comments on my 1600 Master on my 2/M license, I'm sure to tell them which I had first. I sure wasn't given that freebie.

**Capt. Lee** · June 21st, 2009, 12:16 PM

Having the license and running in that capacity are two completely different subjects.

**Capt. Fran** · June 21st, 2009, 12:19 PM

Originally Posted by mike173

Capt_A, as an unlimited 2/M hawsepiper via the 1600 ton route, I, too, have asked that question many times. Since a recent academy grad can use AB time to upgrade to 2/M, it's possible for him to receive a 1600 Master with only 180 days as a 3/M. Makes no freaking sense what-so-ever. So personally, any time someone comments on my 1600 Master on my 2/M license, I'm sure to tell them which I had first. I sure wasn't given that freebie.

Mike, I am in total agreement. I am extremely proud of my 1600 Master. Don't get me wrong, the 3rd Mate license that I also have is cool, but I really only got it because I happened to have the sea time, and since they were going to let me take the crossover, then why not. But, if they said that I had to take two weeks of exams, I would have just taken the 1600 Master and forgotten about the 3rd Mate. I earned that 1600 Master with every grey hair on my head.

**Capt. Lee** · June 21st, 2009, 01:42 PM

Originally Posted by Capt. Fran

I earned that 1600 Master with every grey hair on my head.

It could be worse Fran....those grey hairs could be on your chin.

**Azimuth** · June 21st, 2009, 03:49 PM

Fran, at least you have hair!

**Capt. Fran** · June 21st, 2009, 09:50 PM

Originally Posted by Capt. Lee

It could be worse Fran....those grey hairs could be on your chin.

Excellent point! That wouldn't be pretty.

**Capt. Fran** · June 21st, 2009, 09:52 PM

Originally Posted by Azimuth

Fran, at least you have hair!

Yep, good thing for me that baldness only sticks to the Y chromosome!

**former contract evaluator** · June 29th, 2009, 02:07 PM

OK, this should really get everyone's attention and ruffle feathers of the powers that be! My wife and I were both contract evaluators at NMC until we walked out at 4 pm Thursday April 30th 09 and never went back. We came down to Florida and bought a house a couple weeks before. After we quit we were moved down here within one week and never told anyone what we were doing. In response to Cavo I will tell you how contract evaluators get paid, salary for 40 hours a week paid twice monthly. Below is the resignation e-mail I sent to the "wheels" at the NMC as well as the Commandant’s office. I'm sure that some people will call this the ranting of a disgruntled ex-employee but I am not at all disgruntled. The up side is their incompetence has made my business very successful. I really don't care who get's p***ed. Enjoy! Now the cat is really out of the bag!

NMC,

Consider this my letter of resignation and criticism. I can no longer work for such a dysfunctional organization. You people on the third floor have managed to take a bad idea and make it worse. I look forward to the day that I read where the Commandant has come in and cleaned out the entire ivory tower and put people in your place that know what they are doing.

The NMC is a small scale of everything that is wrong in Washington. I had no idea just how bad it was until I had the misfortune to see it in action for over a year. I have watched knee jerk reactions to every problem that came along. You have continuously made one bad decision after another and never learned anything from your mistakes.

I don’t know whose brainstorm it was to roll out the New MMC in the busiest month of the season as opposed to waiting until things slowed down. I keep in touch with mariners that I sailed with thirty years ago that are still working and the word on the ships and out in the industry is that you are a “laughing stock”. Oh, I know the Captain stands up there at “all Hands” and tells all of you what a great job you are doing and how much industry loves the new system and what a positive response you are getting.

One of the largest backlogs you have is medical, so what do you do? You come out with a six page physical to make that process more complicated. I have not seen one solution to a problem implemented that has had any thought process put in to it. You constantly grasp at straws to find solutions. For every problem you fix, you break two others. You have gone from issuing over three hundred documents a day to barely getting one hundred out the door each day. I don’t have a Doctorate degree in business but that sound suspiciously like you are going backwards.

The Code of Federal Regulations is meaningless. They do not apply to anybody who complains to their representative of Congress. The evaluators don’t know what rules they are expected to follow. One week evaluators issue documents one way, then the next week they get an e-mail telling them to do it a different way. There is absolutely no consistency. Five different teams issue documents five different ways and you thought it was bad with seventeen Regional Exam Centers. You can’t even get a few people on the one floor on the same page. With the exception of Miami, most RECs handled the work load pretty well.

The most frightening thing about your operation is you are a small fraction of the same federal government that is going to bail out the banks, the auto industries and anyone else who comes along with their hand out. You think you can fix the problems of the maritime industry where there was no problem when you can’t even manage to issue a few thousand mariner documents in a month.

You changed medical regulations for these working stiffs and then you have no staff (until lately) to evaluate the medical requirements when they apply. Who was the genius behind that one? Evaluators who deal with the customer on a daily basis make good suggestions to solve problems and you look down your nose at them. How dare a lowly contract evaluator at the bottom of the food chain challenge the bright ideas that come down the “chain of egos”? I know you call it the “chain of command” but everyone knows what it really is. Some of you have egos that come in the room ten minutes before you do. Do you ever wonder why morale on the first and second floor is not just low but nonexistent. No I don’t suppose you do.

Are you even aware that when the “Big Surge” was done to clean out the file room that the contract evaluators were looking at files, printing the drafts and putting them in the buckets to go directly down to print without even being looked at by a reviewer? Imagine that, licenses and documents being issued by the contractors with no over sight by the Coast Guard. Will you mention that in front of Congress the next time you are sitting there (which I suspect won’t be long)?

Do you have any idea what shape you are going to be in if more federal jobs open up in the area? Beware if the economy turns around and there are other good paying jobs out there. You won’t be able to retain a mail clerk.

I have to say it has been a very entertaining year. Not exactly what I thought it was going to be. I had visions of a real smooth operation and a good place to work when I moved down here from Toledo. Instead it has been total chaos from the first day we moved into that nice new “green” building that had all the carpet coming up in less than a year and the stucco falling off the outside corners of the walls. And let’s not forget the wet ceiling tiles in the Dale Larson room from the leaks in the roof. You might want to request a refund from the builder. Sometimes the low bid is not always the best job. Of course you found that out the hard way when the new contract was awarded and the company that won it promptly turned right around and threw eleven good qualified people out on the street. Now you can’t handle the work load because you have no foresight beyond the day after tomorrow. I recall laughing to myself at one of the first “all Hands” when I heard the Captain stand up at the podium and tell us “we will never again have a backlog like the RECs had”. He was right, you don’t have a backlog, you have “inventory”.

Timothy Spears

**kzoo pilot** · June 30th, 2009, 02:15 AM

This idea has bounced around among some lake sailors recently and may have merit . . .

How would the Coast Guard commissioned officer corps like to renew their commissions every five years? Even better, let's have Merchant Marine officers in charge of the process! Imagine this phone call . . . (as heard on the NMC side . . .)

"Good morning, commission renewal center, how can I help you?"
"Yes Admiral, I understand you have had your file in now for quite some time."
"Yes, I understand that eight weeks should be enough to renew, but we are still reviewing your experience documentation."
"Yes sir, I know you have held a commission for twenty six years but this is a new system and we are committed to making it work."
"Please don't use that tone sir, we are doing the best we can, I understand that you have your commission for almost thirty years but it was granted under the old system and we need to ensure you have met the new requirements."
"I understand you can't work until you get your new commission and we are diligently working on processing your application but you will need to inform DHS that as soon as you are get your new commission in the mail they can resume paying you. Thank you, have a good day."

Does any of that sound familiar?

**Capt. Fran** · June 30th, 2009, 08:46 AM

Originally Posted by kzoo pilot

How would the Coast Guard commissioned officer corps like to renew their commissions every five years? Even better, let's have Merchant Marine officers in charge of the process!

"I understand that you have your commission for almost thirty years but it was granted under the old system and we need to ensure you have met the new requirements."

Brilliant!

**neckyeskia** · March 14th, 2010, 02:20 PM

Hello all:

Just wondering if anyone has updated wait time info for new credentials? Mine just entered the dreaded 'awaiting professional qualifications evaluation' stage. Thanks for the help.